Investigation reveals Nigerian bankers Herbert Wigwe and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede held stakes in 80 companies in 20 countries

The late Herbert Wigwe and his longtime business partner Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, chairman of Access Holdings, held stakes in at least 80 companies spread across 20 countries, a new investigation by Premium Times and The Capital NG has found, revealing the scale of the private business empire the two men built alongside their decades-long banking careers.

The two men acquired Access Bank together in 2002, then among the smallest and most troubled lenders in Nigeria. They built it into one of Africa's largest banks by customer base, with the merger with Diamond Bank in 2019 giving the combined institution more than 42 million customers. What the new investigation documents is the substantial parallel structure of private investments, family office arrangements and offshore entities the partners accumulated alongside that public banking career.

At the centre of the structure is Tengen Family Office, a wealth management operation headquartered in Ikoyi, Lagos, that was incorporated in 2017 and was owned 50/50 by Wigwe and Aig-Imoukhuede, according to its own public disclosures. A parallel Nigerian entity, Tengen FOL Limited, was set up with the same equal ownership. A third vehicle, Tengen Holdings Mauritius, was registered in Mauritius under the Coronation Capital umbrella in 2019. This Mauritian entity was directly linked to Wigwe's Access Holdings shareholding, with 1.26 billion of his total 2.59 billion shares in the bank held indirectly through Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius at the time of his 2024 death.

The investigation traces an extensive range of joint ventures, construction companies, energy assets and real estate vehicles between the two men. Fusion Construction Limited, incorporated in 2003, lists both men as directors. United Alliance Company of Nigeria and Trust and Capital Limited were both structured as 50/50 partnerships. In the energy sector, Wigwe held interests in Petralon 10 Limited and Petralon 30 Limited, both incorporated in 2017 and 2018 respectively, alongside Aig-Imoukhuede and Petralon Energy Limited. He held a five percent stake in Petralon Trading and Supply Limited alongside Aig-Imoukhuede, Babatunde Folawiyo and others.

A separate earlier investigation, by the UK publication The Londoner, linked Wigwe to 106 properties across London held through overseas corporate structures. The UK's legal reform requiring overseas entities to disclose beneficial owners made those connections traceable for the first time. Wigwe held his London property interests through Mauritius-based and offshore structures that were not publicly disclosed during his lifetime.

Wigwe died on February 9, 2024, in a helicopter crash in the Mojave Desert in California, alongside his wife Doreen, their son Chizi, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, who had been chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group. He was 52. The helicopter was operated by Blade Air Mobility and came down near Halloran Springs in San Bernardino County. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the crash remains ongoing.

Aig-Imoukhuede, who returned to Access Holdings as executive chairman following Wigwe's death to stabilise the institution, has publicly pledged to preserve Wigwe's legacy and maintain his commitment to the family. He has said he will treat Wigwe's children as his own. The new offshore investigation adds detail to the picture of what Wigwe built during his lifetime, and by extension what Aig-Imoukhuede now navigates as the surviving partner in a structure that the two men spent over two decades constructing together.